They invoke ideology, beliefs and attitudes. <Liberty> is a word that we can invoke
to protect ourselves from the powerful. It is a term that is invoked to help us sort out
friendly nations from not-friendly nations. We cannot point to liberty. We can point to
other things -- a newspaper criticizing the government -- and call it <liberty>.

They are historically grounded. Ideographs generally have historical narratives that
tell us of the importance of our embracing the action principles of the ideograph. For
example, we tell the story of the Alamo as about Texans' fight for liberty. The Statue
of Liberty serves as a focal point for ancestors who came to this country seeking
<liberty>.

They have an energy to motivate action. We invoke ideographs to shape action,
behavioral complexes of people working toward ends.

<Colonialism> as an ideograph

Colonialism was initially an economic system. Colonial countries were owned by
the mother country and operated for its benefit. Initially they were seen as a place to
extract raw materials, later as exclusive markets to sell the manufacturing goods of the
mother country.

Became a powerful ideograph in the 1960s. African nations were achieving
independence from their colonial masters. The movement was being celebrated with a
narrative of the people living under colonialism oppressed by the colonial masters.
(Notice the slave metaphor.) So, the freedom granted to previously colonial nations
became a way of talking about the aspirations of people talking about their oppression
and the anti-colonial movement in Africa became a beacon of hope for these people.

The antiwar rhetoric opposed to Vietnam presented it as a war to retain an
American colony.

Those in the Black Power movement found the ideograph a way to talk about
their own aspirations.

The strategic use of ideograph

Ideographs used in discourse bring the full weight of certain beliefs and attitudes
of the culture to bear on a particular situation.